Court cuts impacting local inmates

It is said the wheels of justice turn slowly. With cuts the state is being forced to make in the court system, Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin said he is afraid the wheels will turn even slower.

BY LISA ROGERSTimes Staff Writer

It is said the wheels of justice turn slowly. With cuts the state is being forced to make in the court system, Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin said he is afraid the wheels will turn even slower.A cut of about 35 percent in Alabama’s judicial system might be needed for the next fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, on top of cuts that already have been made to get through the remainder of the current fiscal year.The number of civil trials scheduled has been cut by half and the number of criminal trials by one-third.“I’m afraid that’s going to slow things down even more,” Entrekin said.Presiding Circuit Judge Allen Millican said he and other court officials are looking for ways to make sure that doesn’t happen.“We’re going to reorganize the way we’re doing things,” he said.Millican said during jury weeks in August, there typically are two weeks of criminal dockets and two weeks of civil dockets. This year, all judges will do criminal court dockets in August.Millican said 99 percent of those cases will be for drugs.“That’s our biggest volume of cases,” he said.He said another possibility is keeping jurors longer. “The biggest expense is getting the jurors here,” he said. “It may be cheaper in the long run.”Millican said jurors usually serve a week, but they can serve longer.“We’re trying to conserve everything we can, anyway we can,” he said. “Everybody’s going to have to sacrifice, be it the sheriff’s office, district attorney’s office, the courts or the citizens. It’s all just a way to keep the doors open. We’re trying to think outside the box.”Millican said some jurors already have opted not to take the $10 a day and mileage expense reimbursement the state pays them for their service.District Attorney Jimmie Harp said he is not happy with the cuts in the judicial system, and he doesn’t believe any more cuts in the budgets are possible.“We’re already working with a bare-bones budget,” Harp said.Millican said he sees no reason capital murder trials already scheduled for this fall will not be held.Entrekin said he hopes those cases move forward because the case of at least one inmate charged with capital murder dates back to March 2005.Tonya Cate was indicted in March 2005 for the September 2003 death of her 16-month-old adopted daughter.Cate originally was charged in January 2005 with capital murder after autopsy results were completed in December 2004. She was released on bond in an unprecedented move by about 50 property owners who each pledged $2,000 toward the $100,000 bond.She was out on bond when she was indicted by an Etowah County grand jury and then arrested in March 2005. No bond was set after her arrest following the indictment, which is customary in capital murder cases.“She has been sitting here way too long,” Entrekin said.Including Cate, 10 people are in the Etowah County jail awaiting trial on capital murder charges, Entrekin said.Shalinda Glass has remained in jail since her arrest in December 2006 on a capital murder charge in the death of her 5-year-old son, Geontae.Barry McGinnis has been held on a capital murder charge since February for St. Clair County.Avriez Robinson and Dominique Frazer are charged with capital murder in the robbery and shooting of a woman at a coin-operated laundry in Gadsden in November 2007.Robert Kelley was charged in December 2009 with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of his father-in-law and his father-in-law’s nephew.Justin Denson is charged with capital murder in the December 2010 shooting death of his mother.Robert Trotman was charged in February and Roger Jordan in April with capital murder in the shooting death of a man during a robbery at an apartment on Chestnut Street in November 2010.Antonio Franco was charged in March with capital murder in the shooting death of a man during a robbery in Attalla in September 2001.Entrekin said there are 11 people in jail on murder charges. Seven remain in custody on attempted murder charges and there are 34 people in jail on sex-related charges. One is jailed for manslaughter, four for first-degree assault, five for second-degree assault, 12 for first-degree robbery, one for second-degree robbery and two for third-degree robbery.That doesn’t include numerous cases in which the person charged has made bond and is not in jail, but is awaiting trial.An increase in alternative sentencing programs has helped keep inmate numbers down, but with court system cuts the numbers eventually will climb.“The court system has done a good job, but by no fault of theirs, this is going to punish us by putting us back to where we were 10 years ago,” Scott Hassell, chief deputy of corrections, said. “The court system is forced to make these cuts.”The problem is compounded because crime is not going down, Entrekin said.“This is the prime time of the year that crime rates traditionally go up,” he said.Entrekin said a bill that makes changes in several laws is supported by Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, who believes the changes will help with prison overcrowding. The proposed law states that inmates can stay in the county jail up to three years before being transferred to a state prison.He said the proposed crime bill legislation places inmates in county jails who normally would serve their time in state prison facilities.“The county is getting cheated,” he said. “There is no funding mechanism to cover this extra cost.”He said the bill includes a new segment identifying some charges as Class D felonies and changing the dollar values for thefts. He said the creation of a Class D felony, as well as probation changes, will mean each county jail’s population will increase.The costs to maintain the jail will increase, and counties will be required to feed and clothe each prisoner. The medical care cost also is a factor.Entrekin said the sheriff’s association has asked the state to at least absorb the cost of medical care if the bill passes.If the bill becomes law, it also will mean the release of many convicted criminals back into the community, Entrekin said.“The municipal police departments and the sheriff’s office will be the ones who have to deal with those convicted criminals who are released,” he said.Entrekin joined other sheriffs across the state in a meeting recently in Montgomery with Cobb. The sheriffs explained to her why they oppose the bills.“Her theory is that in the long run, crime is reduced,” he said.There also are changes in the drug charge weights that would allow a person to have a larger amount of marijuana, cocaine or meth before being charged with more the more serious crime of trafficking.Entrekin said he has worked narcotics for years and the proposed changes would set the state back many years.“We’ve seen it go from where drug laws weren’t that tough, to some changes that placed drug offenses under the Habitual Offender Act,” he said. “But if these laws are changed, we’re reverting back to what we fought so hard to get passed years ago.”Cobb has said she supports alternative sentencing and rehabilitation, and these changes are a way to alleviate some of the prison overcrowding.“This is not the answer,” Entrekin said.Hassell said there is a need for rehabilitation, but there are many cases in which is not the appropriate avenue.Rehabilitation and drug treatment programs have become more common in the sentencing of convicted criminals.“Rehabilitation is fine, but there still has to be punishment or these programs lose their effectiveness,” Hassell said. “There is a time for rehabilitation for addicted users, but it’s not the solution for those who sell drugs.”He and Entrekin both believe alternative sentencing is not the answer for some crimes.“It used to be that if you sold dope, you went to prison,” Entrekin said.The use of alternative sentencing such as the county’s Substance Abuse Program also makes it more difficult in enforcement, Entrekin said.Traditionally, the drug unit and narcotics investigators have depended on using those arrested for less serious drug offenses to reach the bigger drug suppliers. Now fewer people charged with drug crimes are cooperating with officers, knowing that with alternative sentencing programs they are less likely to do jail time anyway, he said.“There are people who will cook meth all day long and not use it, but they sell it,” Entrekin said. “They need to be in prison.”Rob Savage, commander of the Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit, said the changes in weights make a difference and law enforcement already has a difficult enough time dealing with repeat offenders.Savage said at least 40 percent of the people who were arrested in a drug roundup on May 18 have been arrested on drug charges before.He said laws that impact drug arrests are the last place change is needed.“We cannot ever lose sight that 80 percent of all crimes in the county are connected to narcotics,” he said.Entrekin said Etowah County already is a model around the state for some of its alternative sentencing and community correction programs.“It’s a reflection on our court system and the great job our judges and district attorney’s office has done,” he said. “But changing the laws in Alabama to try to correct the problem by causing more overcrowding is not the answer.”

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